okay, okay, so i'm a jerk

...which means, yeah, no update just yet. i know what you're thinking -- well, monica, if you have the time to write that there will be no list today, don't you have the time to write your list?

well, no, reader. this list requires time for thought that i don't have at the moment. i'd really like to be able to sit back and think about my list. really come up with some stellar 'life goals.' cause when one makes such a list, one needs to make sure all things are on said list. i've given thought to printing out my 'life goals' in order to keep them and try to accomplish as many as possible, so i want to make sure that everything i can possibly think of is on this superb list. (i hope i'm not building this up too much, hahha) i'm a list person, and i heart having lists of things to cross off once i've finished them. it warms me a little inside every time i can (neatly) cross an item off a (neat, organized) list.

i do, however, have time for a quick post explaining the BOOOOOO-ishness of work lately. i mean, it's always pretty BOOO-inspiring, but we're currently switching over to new software systems, and it is just a giant mess. none of us know how to build a page anymore, so it's ridiculously confusing and frustrating. i've never quite experienced something like this, where you know how to do something in one system but you are switched to another system which is eerily similar but just different enough that you're totally lost. we used to use quark -- and we still are, for some pages, just to make it more confusing -- and we're switching to indesign. the two systems look almost exactly alike, except the ways to do everything are different. for instance, in quark, if you want to add runaround (buffer space around an object) onto something, you hit control T. if you want to do this in indesign, it is now called 'text wrap' and it is alt+cntrl+W. ..why? cause whoever made indesign decided to completely scrap quark shortcuts? i have no idea, really. i'm not sure which came first, all i know is whoever created each clearly hated the other, because everything is completely different. so far, i'm not such a huge fan of indesign, but i suspect this is solely because i have no idea what i'm doing so far. i don't like not being good at what i do, particularly since i am, modestness aside, quite accomplished in quark. i can build a page -- well -- very quickly, and now i am back to square one, learning the whole process. except it's even more annoying since if i was using quark, i'd know what to do, but now that we're in indesign, i've got no clue what magical combination of buttons to hit to, say, take a frame off a box, or make a box gray, or .. oof.

so. aside from it being frustrating for me for several reasons, one of which being that i simply don't like change (unless i instigate it -- yes, i know it's unfair, but that's another post, really), it's also frustrating to me because we have several people here who are not really proficient at technology in general, let alone switching over to new systems. and they're vocal people. so they are yelling and angry and frustrated and.. well. they are not shy in voicing their opinion that we were just fine with quark, thankyouverymuch. i secretly (or not so, i have also been somewhat vocal in not being thrilled about all this) agree, but i am hoping i appear to take a slightly less gutturally angry manner about it.

phooey. on top of all of this, they have actually been making me do loads of work lately. gone are the days when i had hours to beg for something to do.. i am pretty well busy from start to finish every day now. i don't even usually take a break. although i do take 5-minute breaks to read articles on people or tmz, so i guess it evens out.. but i consider those my smoke breaks, since i don't smoke.

speaking of time, though, i was waiting for page 7 to be read because all i need to do is upload some stories to the web and then i can go home, and now that that page has been read, i can upload it, so i'm going to get on that so i can go home and watch last comic standing. woot!!

i swear, my 'life goals' slash 'list of things to do before i die' slash 'things i want to accomplish' slash 'better name i haven't come up with yet' will come someday. tomorrow i might have time, but i am going to try building two pages in indesign tomorrow.. so depending on how well that goes, i may or may not have time to do so.
(eep.)